Research the Current Manufacturing Situation in Canada (Coursework Sample)

Canada’s manufacturing sector
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Institute
A growing number of Canadians are worried about the country’s manufacturing sector that appears to be declining or stagnating. Canada, as observed by The National Post is being deindustrialized (para.1) Tencer (2014) shares in this observation "stagnation is now stretching well into its second decade" (para.16). Comparing Canada’s manufacturing output to that of the US; he found that the country’s [Canada] production had declined by 11.5 percent. A scrutiny of the situation reveals that Canada’s manufacturing sector has shrunk, but there is no reason to panic. Paperny (2014) found that "the number of Ontarians working in manufacturing jobs reached a 38-year low in Statistics Canada’s most recent jobs numbers" (para.1). Politicians have made the situation worse by linking stagnation in manufacturing to the declining number of workers employed in the sector. Over the past year, Canada has lost about 1.3 percent of its manufacturing jobs. He noted that whereas production handled more than a fifth of Ontario’s GDP in 2002, it had shrunk to 12.2 percent by 2013 (as cited in Statistics Canada). In the southern areas of Canada, Radwanski (2014) emphasizes the dire situation in his observation that Windsor in particular, "while young people must look elsewhere for work, older ones do not know where to look at all" (para.5).
Competition for markets has significantly affected the Canadian economy. According to Statistics Canada (2009), liberalization of trade has hit the Canadian manufacturing sector’s opportunities in the U.S. export markets, intensifying competition from foreign producers. The publication goes on to reveal that apart from changes in trade tariffs, the manufacturing sector faced challenges from demand shifts. Demand for inputs and raw materials used in manufacturing have continued to grow. However, growth in capital inputs been higher compared to growth in capital services. This growth has seen lower number of people employed in the manufacturing sector. Paperny (2014, para.17) argues that the industrial sector in Canada was undergoing a transition (as cited in Moffat, 2015). Traditional manufacturing involves having a lot of people in a factory. With advancement in technology and production practices, the industry has seen an increase in machinery that has replaced human beings. With advanced technology, another challenge comes to the fore: matching the people who need work with the skills required by employers. There is a need for a better way to connect the two parties (Paperny, 2014, para.19).
The future is bright for Canada as more countries are shying away from China and India, which are considered to produce goods of lower quality. Instead, Tencer (2014) observes that companies prefer products manufactured with greater quality and consistency attributes which Canada possesses (as cited by KPMG). The country has also invested heavily in clean technology which in addition to helping conserve the environment is cheap. In "How clean technology can save Canadian manufacturing”, Parry (2014) notes that cost of clean technology wind power installation cost to be precise; has fallen by 50 percent (para.8). The government encouraged growth in the manufacturing sector introduced the Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) in 2007. This incentive provides a 50 percent straight-line depreciation rate and more than 28,000 businesses in the manufacturing industry have taken advantage of this measure. A proposal has been made to extend this incentive for new manu...